CM goes all out to woo Muslims

THE SAMAJWADI Party government has fallen back on Urdu to win over the Muslim community in the State. As Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav distributed BTC invitations to 3,315 Urdu teachers here on Saturday, he used the occasion to demonstrate his affinity with Urdu. “I can sign in Urdu”, Yadav said while emphasising that he regularly read the Hindi translation of Quran.

Apart from recruiting 5,000 Urdu teachers for the two-year basic training certificate (BTC), the chief minister announced to appoint 5,000 more Urdu teachers soon. The trainees will be paid a stipend of Rs 2,500 per month.

The chief minister said the entire opposition had ganged up against him and now desperate attempts were being made to dislodge the party from power. But the SP would thwart their design with “your help”.

The party in its 2002 election manifesto had promised to appoint 3,000 Urdu teachers and now when it is in the process of preparing a manifesto for the next election, moves are afoot to take them in for training.

Yadav said 5,000 more Urdu students would be taken in for training soon. The chief minister said he had committed no crime by giving jobs to 5,000 Urdu-speaking people or handing out Rs 500 as unemployment allowance to youths.

Satisfaction of the people was more important than the opposition drive against him, he said. Pointing out that the SP would emerge stronger out of the present crisis, Yadav said the next assembly elections were vital for the State. The entire opposition had no programme but just one negative slogan— to remove the SP from power.

Yadav said he had been pleading for the cause of Urdu, because whenever Muslims were in trouble they sought help from the SP. He had linked Urdu with job opportunities in the State, he said and recalled how he had protected the Babri Masjid in 1990.

The chief minister said communal forces would never succeed in their gameplan and if the party came back to power, it would solve more problems of the Muslim community.